A suggestion for future work on battle map settlement models

**Roma_Victrix** · January 24, 2015, 02:43 AM

Hello EB team.

I've made a similar thread in the forum for Invasio Barbarorum II, which is also developing a Roman-era mod. The units in this mod are awesome and clearly consumed a lot of time and effort in the making. However, the one major thing that's really lacking is the settlements! To put it politely, they need lots of work, although I recognize much effort was already put into re-skinning the defensive walls for settlements. However, overall the cities don't look very authentic or developed, especially with the lack of an acropolis for Greek cities, and no temples whatsoever! There is apparently another mod in the works that has absolutely great looking Greco-Roman settlements in this regard, fully fleshed out, authentic, fantastic, and completely immersive. The mod is called Natus ob Imperium:

Do you guys think you could ask their team for permission to use their settlements? That would be a huge boon for this mod, I think. Aside from that, I would recommend simply re-skinning and further work on the existing settlements in the game, but in my honest opinion I think the whole thing should just be scrapped in the future. I think you guys should keep the above video in mind if you choose that route.

**alin** · January 24, 2015, 04:17 AM

Yes, we know about it and we are in collaboration(sharing content) with them after some misunderstandings in the past.

However the problem here is we have no one that could port their settlements.

**Reno Melitensis** · January 24, 2015, 06:00 AM

Would that be so difficult to do?. I always had the ambition of trying to mame some settlements for IB II, but its time consuming and I have a lot of family related issues to take care off. But after seeing Roma_Victrix ideo of this mod on our sub forum, I guess its time mYbe to give this a try.

Alin do you have any direct link to the developers of this mod?. I would work to port it to our mods and EB II if that would be possibe.

Cheers

**alin** · January 24, 2015, 06:25 AM

It's not difficult but it is time consuming, however there are plenty of tutorials to speed up the learning process.

Yes, I have so PM me if you really wish to do this so we can discuss details.

**Roma_Victrix** · January 24, 2015, 09:01 AM

Originally Posted by alin

It's not difficult but it is time consuming, however there are plenty of tutorials to speed up the learning process.

Yes, I have so PM me if you really wish to do this so we can discuss details.

Firstly, alin, I want to say that I'm very impressed with what you've already done with re-skinning the walls for Greek and Roman settlements. In fact, I think a superior settlement would be one with the buildings of Natus ob Imperium combined with the defensive walls that you created.

I'm not a modder by any means and lack any sort of relevant software for editing this stuff. However, if there is any small job that a total layman can handle, please, by all means, send it my way! I'd be glad to do some menial stuff that's extremely easy but would otherwise be tedious or time-consuming for you guys.

By that I mean writing out repetitive lines of code and such, if that's necessary.

**Roma_Victrix** · January 24, 2015, 09:33 AM

Also, you guys should consider taking advantage of stuff that already exists on this forum. Just look at the phenomenal job done by the Roma Surrectum II team lately for the 2.6 version of their mod, on Greek settlements alone!

If the Natus ob Imperium thing doesn't work out, consider recruiting some guys from Roma Surrectum onto your staff.

**Dago Red** · January 24, 2015, 11:05 AM

Great to hear this is in the works!

**xHolyCrusader** · January 24, 2015, 11:30 AM

Wooow, those RS2 settlements look AMAZING, beyond awesome!

I wish someone would dedicate the same amount of love into working on settlements with the IWTE for EB2, the problem is its a hell of a time consuming undertaking....

**Roma_Victrix** · January 24, 2015, 01:59 PM

Originally Posted by xHolyCrusader

Wooow, those RS2 settlements look AMAZING, beyond awesome!

I wish someone would dedicate the same amount of love into working on settlements with the IWTE for EB2, the problem is its a hell of a time consuming undertaking....

To be honest I'd start tackling it right away if I knew what I was doing and/or had the editing software to assume that challenge. Unfortunately I lack both.

However, as for menial tasks that a layman could handle, I would be more than willing to assume the responsibility. Besieging settlements like these in EB II, Invasio Barbarorum II, and De Bello Mundi would make my dream come true.

**Roma_Victrix** · March 19, 2015, 04:07 PM

So, Alin, is there any news about collaboration with Natus ob Imperium or work on porting their settlements? I do love EB II, the various units are a work of art, but if there's one thing that falls flat it is the lackluster settlements during a siege on the battle map. Imagine having those cities shown above in the game!

A boy can dream, can't he?

**alin** · March 20, 2015, 01:44 PM

No news, we have no one available to port the models and work on this.

**Roma_Victrix** · March 22, 2015, 09:14 AM

Originally Posted by alin

No news, we have no one available to port the models and work on this.

This has to be the #1 thing I'm concerned about with mods like EB II, De Bello Mundi, and Invasio Barbarorum II. They need proper settlements for antiquity, not the present models that are so lacking and undeveloped (aside from your wonderful work on the defensive stone walls, of course). Could you send me a link to the tutorial for how to port settlements? I'd like to at least try and do something, as amateur as I am with any sort of modding (or to be more precise, like a babe lost in the woods without a compass or drinking water, lol). Do I need a bunch of fancy software on my own computer in order to do this?

Please! I'd love to help! I'm busy with PhD work, but I do have some spare time. Hell, if I have enough spare time to play your mod, I have enough spare time for this.

**xHolyCrusader** · March 22, 2015, 09:50 AM

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ckage-files%29

you just need the iwte, which is free

in case you wanna make small adjustments and stuff to the settlements ms3d and gimp/ps might add up to the things u need aswell.

**Roma_Victrix** · March 22, 2015, 10:28 AM

Originally Posted by xHolyCrusader

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ckage-files%29

you just need the iwte, which is free

in case you wanna make small adjustments and stuff to the settlements ms3d and gimp/ps might add up to the things u need aswell.

Cool, thanks! However, I don't have access to Natus ob imperium's settlement data, from their "data/settlements" folder, because their mod hasn't been released yet! I would need a full and complete copy of that, it appears, before embarking on this task.

Or I could just attempt to mod the existing settlements a bit as you suggest. It seems like there's a mountain of stuff I have to learn first. In the meantime I'm backing up my entire mod before I do anything to replace or edit the current settlement files.

Also, in regards to adding certain buildings from RTW into this game, since I have RTW on my computer and its data/settlements folder as well, is that sufficient enough? Would I be able to shift or port buildings from RTW (already on my computer) over to EB II? I hope so.

**Roma_Victrix** · May 05, 2015, 05:35 AM

Sadly I don't think I'm quite adept enough to handle the task of even porting a settlement, let alone editing the battle map with IWTE. That's a little out of my league and there's just too much to digest. I would need a thorough training session from someone in person.

However, you guys should keep considering the idea of looking around for talent in this regard. Take for instance the fantastically awesome totally custom-made settlements made for the mod The Third Age Total War. Those were true artists there, and they did it with the Medieval II engine!

Someone from the EB team should seriously consider contacting their team to see if any graphic artists would be willing to work on the improvement of settlements.

**xHolyCrusader** · May 05, 2015, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by Roma_Victrix

Sadly I don't think I'm quite adept enough to handle the task of even porting a settlement, let alone editing the battle map with IWTE. That's a little out of my league and there's just too much to digest. I would need a thorough training session from someone in person.

My offer still holds.

However, you guys should keep considering the idea of looking around for talent in this regard. Take for instance the fantastically awesome totally custom-made settlements made for the mod The Third Age Total War. Those were true artists there, and they did it with the Medieval II engine!

Someone from the EB team should seriously consider contacting their team to see if any graphic artists would be willing to work on the improvement of settlements.

I already tried to contact leo.civil.uefs, he was the last working on TATW settlement, sadly retired aswell now